Did the 40-year-old European political newbie just leave as Donald Trump’s French poodle?

Time will tell, but the imagery and concrete results of this first-ever state visit of the Trump era left that question hanging heavy in the air. The answer will help determine whether the Frenchman ends up realizing the promise of the younger Tony Blair — a European centrist whose rise shook up his country and the Continent — or the later incarnation, an unpopular former British prime minister tarnished by his association with another American president, George W. Bush.

While Trump lavished attention and time on Macron, the French president returned to Paris on Thursday with little more to show for his Washington sojourn than a flurry of mixed headlines. He didn’t get any traction to resolve a trade fight a week before the U.S. plans to impose new tariffs on the EU. He seemingly got nowhere on Europe’s top security priority, to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive — and Macron admitted as much before he left, saying that Trump was likely to pull out of the accord on May 12.

Spot the alpha male

In some of the images, Macron was cast poorly. There was Trump brushing what he said was dandruff off his guest’s suit jacket, dragging him by the hand like a reluctant child and sharing a fraternal kiss in the White House’s East Room.

Such moments could be dismissed as trivial, if only Macron had never gotten into trying to match Trump in that game of public showmanship. (Remember the Frenchman’s handshake standoff with Trump last year in Brussels?) But he did, big time, and as he prepared to leave Washington one of the last questions he had to field was about Trump’s dandruff comment: “That’s how he is. We have to consider that maybe you don’t share his logic and neither do I, but that’s the way it is,” he told a journalist from French satirical news show “Le Quotidien.”

The French press corps that followed Macron to Washington, and voiced frustration over the lack of access to officials throughout the voyage, picked up on the alpha-beta dynamic. Trump had, in subtle ways, made Macron his “petite chose,” or beloved plaything, during the trip, quipped the U.S. correspondent of one major left-leaning publication.

“There was a rapport of domination,” said another reporter when asked how the trip had gone. Their quips echoed the nastier responses to Macron’s trip from far-left and far-right politicians such as former deputy head of the National Front, Florian Philippot, who said that the French president had been “humiliated” during his overseas stay.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of France’s mainstream conservative movement, smelled blood by the second day of Macron’s trip, arguing that the Macron had “no influence” over the American leader.

Seen that way, Macron took a step down the path trod by Blair, who embraced his “special relationship” with Bush, only to see his political legacy reduced to the caricature of Bush’s poodle during the Iraq war.

The parallel between Britain’s “third way” choir boy and France’s “radical centrist” only goes so far. The men and their times are too different. But the comparisons will be drawn and repeated.

Macron got a thunderous standing ovation for his speech to Congress, one of the trip’s most powerful, lasting images.

At a press conference rounding out his trip Wednesday night, Macron was asked pointedly why he persisted in trying to be friends with a leader whose values he had seemed to criticize in a speech to Congress, widely praised by American Democrats, hours after their last encounter. Macron acknowledged “differences” with Trump, which he chalked up to regular disagreements “in a family,” and said he does not believe diplomacy is about winning or losing.

Macron’s biggest moment

Macron’s spin doctors and advisers will inevitably weave a different and in parts compelling story — and avoid the Blair comparisons at every turn. There were, to be sure, some good Macron moments too in Washington. His speech to a rare joint session of Congress won rave reviews from the Trump opposition, who took his attacks on nationalism as indirect trolling of the American president — and cheered.

The speech, though in places hard to understand, forcefully established Macron’s worldview as distinct from Trump’s on a huge global platform and triggered a thunderous standing ovation that will be one of the trip’s most powerful, lasting images.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to a joint session of Congress on April 25, 2018 in Washington, D.C. | Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Macron also showed his mastery as a politician during a town hall with students at which he adroitly fielded tricky questions, in English and in shirtsleeves, on Islam, migration and why he wouldn’t meet with the Dalai Lama. Hours later, he spontaneously embraced a former civil rights activist, then invited him to share a meal, in a reminder of his rare quality as a politician — the ability to connect meaningfully with people without seeming trite or deliberate.

Then again, no one ever said that Tony Blair wasn’t a great orator or a uniquely talented retail politician. The critical reception back home of Macron’s trip to the U.S. — complete with accusations that he had been “humiliated” by Trump — suggest that his friendship with the American is anything but risk-free.

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Tony Brown

On the front page of the Times yesterday was a large photo of Macron kissing (eating?) Mrs Trumps hand. Several people remarked about it being a ‘weinstein’ moment and very inappropriate.

I was embarrassed by the male grooming of Macron by Trump with the dandruff episode.

I don’t know how this has played out in France but Macron certainly came over as the junior partner, no mean feat when Trump is so gauche.

Posted on 4/26/18 | 6:49 PM CEST

John Rob

This is what I like to see.

One national leader embracing another.

Not the EU bureaucrats. The democratically elected National leaders.

Like it or loath it I prefer it to back room unelected globalist deals.

Posted on 4/27/18 | 1:00 AM CEST

Nathan Kennedy

Oh la la, le French poodle….

Posted on 4/27/18 | 11:15 AM CEST

peter lintner

It´s now becoming obvious that Macron is a failure. He has big mouth and no results. He wants to accommodate everyone, but you know how it works. If you want to have everything, you end up having nothing.

Posted on 4/27/18 | 1:14 PM CEST

Irene Duym

Again, disgusting, vulgar comments form the people above. No genuine insight into politics but they somehow think they know it all. Good for them. Such stupidities don’t deserve commenting back.

Posted on 4/27/18 | 5:17 PM CEST

Priscilla du Bleu

@peter lintner

Applicable to others as well ….

“It´s now becoming obvious that May is a failure. She has big mouth and no results. She wants to accommodate everyone, but you know how it works. If you want to have everything, you end up having nothing.”

Priscilla du Bleu

LOL. Where in my posting again is the term ‘brexit’? Hint: In the voices in your sick head …. you must be desperate about brexit collapsing if you start to see this term where it is not written. LOOOOL again.

Actually, i was talking about the maybutt’s grandstandig internal and party-politics – and her failure there as well.